Overview: Time to accept USA for Innovation for what it was- June 9, 2007
The USA for Innovation site went silent on May 9, 2007. The companion site ThaiMyths.com ran from May 7 to May 18 and then went silent as well.
Based on its short history, USA for Innovation is
* an organization with no history before April 2007 (despite a huge directory of press releases, none of these were released to the net on the alleged dates they were created)
* an organization whose web attacks have no precedent in lobbying--except for the lobbying group Edelman which is well-known for creating fake lobbying efforts and planting articles and opinion pieces in the press (more info here).
* an organization that could afford an expensive hired gun like Kenneth Adelman
* an organization that seems satisfied to cease all activity on May 18.
Thaksin ended his association with lobbying firm Edelman on May 7.

Below is the original story: "USA for Innovation" - A made-to-order lobbying effort - 7:31am, April 29, 2007
[Update: 19:11, April 29, 2007 - Traditional media is beginning to cover this story--along the lines we have laid out here. Just remember that 2Bangkok.com had the story first.]

Is "USA for Innovation" a fake lobbying group set up to attack the current Thai government?

With perfect timing, this new lobbying effort has appeared and targeted the Thai military government. Practically overnight, a Google search returns 24,300 hits for "USA for Innovation" (as of the writing of this article) and they all appear to refer to the press releases this lobbying group has issued over the last few days.
Pre-April 2007 press releases from USA for Innovation do not appear to have been released to PR Web or other press release websites. Pre-April 2007 press releases do not even appear on Google--perhaps indicating they were only recently placed on the website to give USA for Innovation a plausible history before this April. Archive.org shows no activity for the site either.

USA for Innovation's sparse website has a news page with occasional press releases going back to 2005, but only the recent Thai patent issue has multiple press releases. There is also a gap, nearly a year long, between press releases from May 2006 to April 2007.According to SourceWatch, USA for Innovation's Executive Director Ken Adelman is also a senior counselor to Edelman. Edelman is the PR firm hired by former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
This PR initiative comes at a suspiciously opportune time as pro-Thaksin groups attempt to build on issues from the draft constitution to destabilize the government before the momentous rulings on disbanding the Thai Rak Thai party at the end of May.
2Bangkok.com is attempting to contact USA for Innovation, Edelman, and Baker Botts for comment.

Above: For those of you who cannot see YouTube in Thailand, here is a screen grab of USA for Innovation's site. So far the comments on the clip are overwhelmingly negative.
On the USA for Innovation website there is a strangely broad explanation of the YouTube blocking: Thailand's government censors speech within the country, including anything from YouTube, a service it considers to be dangerous and subversive.

Military Regime Continues to Censor Free Speech in Thailand - April 26, 2007USA For Innovation's Executive Director Ken Adelman will today release a message to the people of Thailand regarding the importance of innovation and concerns about the Thai Government's recent endorsement of theft of American intellectual property.
This message will be available via Google's YouTube service this afternoon beginning at 3:00pm PT at the USA For Innovation YouTube website...

Troubles from Thailand - Washington Times, April 27, 2007...Most recently, the government brazenly announced it was breaking patents on drugs produced by Western corporations. And while this action is in line with the rampant theft of U.S. innovation in Thailand, it is also glaringly self-serving. An official Thai spokesman admitted busting patents "will be good for local pharmaceutical companies to improve their capacity." Perhaps unsurprising, one local pharmaceutical supplier happens to be owned by the Thai government, the Government Pharmaceutical Organization.

Above: Part of the full page ad placed in The Wall Street Journal

USA for Innovation's Wall Street Journal ad - April 29, 2007
The broad sweep of issues addressed in both the USA for Innovation website and its Wall Street Journal ad is peculiar for a lobbying group that is ostensibly concerned with pharmaceutical issues.
Taking the angle of "Slouching towards Burma" and "Radical new regime" could indicate a broader agenda than just focusing on protecting patents. Calling the PM a "Military Dictator," bringing up "targeted 'disappearances'" in the deep south, attacking military spending, and trying to highlight YouTube censorship seems to go far beyond what would be expected from a typical lobbying group attempting to apply political pressure a patent issue.

Adelman spin the latest attack in the 'war from outside' - The Nation, May 11, 2007...Since his background has been in the field of defence, with close ties to hardcore American conservatives, you must wonder why he dislikes the Thai military regime so much. Don't they belong to the same species - more power and higher military budgets?
But wait a minute, his bio says that he is senior counsellor at Edelman Public Relations. Do you know why now?
Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted prime minister, hired Edelman Public Relations to represent him and to help prop up his international image. The Nation earlier reported that he signed a public-relations contract with Edelman in a deal worth US$300,000 (Bt10.3 million).
Edelman Public Relations was responsible for most of Thaksin's media exposure with CNN, Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal and the like earlier this year when he launched a PR blitz to boost his international image.
...The outsiders set the rules - freedom of expression by YouTube, free trade by the US, high drug costs by pharmaceutical companies - we only have to follow.
Increasingly, we'll face more and more people like Ken Edelman, who has hardly ever set foot in Thailand, but who is willing to crush us to the ground with his black heart.

Ex-president blasts Abbott on standoff with Thailand - Waukegan News, May 11, 2007...Standing next to the Thai health minister, Clinton strongly endorsed decisions by Thailand and Brazil to break patents held by American drug manufacturers to make their own versions of the drugs. The former president also said some of the prices charged by American drug companies are "exorbitant..."

New 'Thailies' website spurs strong reaction - Bangkok Post, May 9, 2007The government has increased its internet monitoring operations after the American lobby group USA for Innovation announced it had launched a new anti-Thai government website, www.Thailies.com. ''We will check the background of the website operator to see if it has any hidden agenda,'' said government spokesman Yongyuth Mayalap...

Official: U.S. ex-President Clinton backs Thai move to break patents on AIDS drugs - IHT, May 8, 2007Former U.S. President Bill Clinton supports Thailand's move to break patents on AIDS drugs to lower their cost for poor patients, the Thai health minister said Wednesday.
Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla, who met with Clinton on Tuesday, is visiting the U.S. to explain Thailand's decision to break patents on three drugs, including the AIDS drugs Kaletra produced by Abbott Laboratories and Efavirenz by Merck. Both are American companies...

Thai coup leaders hire PR company - BBC, April 30, 2007...It signals a battle over the image of the country, which has been the subject of some recent negative publicity.
Its ousted and exiled former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has hired lobbyists and PR agents in the US...

"Charity" or "corporate-funded campaigning group?" - May 11, 2007
It is interesting how the USA for Innovation ad in The Nation on May 9, 2007 (below left) uses the same points as the Philip Stevens' article.

More about Philip Stevens and the International Policy Network:
From the forum: The cited article in the Chicago Sun-Times [Thailand violates drug patents for its own profit] signs off with:"Philip Stevens is health program director at the International Policy Network, a London-based charity..."

In an opinion piece in The Nation, the author is described as "Philip Stevens is director of the health programme at the International Policy Network, a London-based development think tank." This is the same description Newsweek uses.

Sourcewatch calls International Policy Network a "corporate-funded campaigning group" that specializes in pharmaceutical and patent issues. Regardless of media outlets' misleading descriptions, the International Policy Network appears to be another lobbying group.

Left:USA For Innovation Announces Advertising Campaign In Thailand - Bangkok Post, May 10, 2007USA for Innovation today announced an advertising campaign in Thailand aimed at highlighting Thailand's theft of American and European medical technology at the expense of the poor and sick. The advertisement, a full-page ad in The Nation, highlights the actions of Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla, which hurt jobs, investment and access to safe medicines for the people of Thailand...

ThaiMyths.com site gone -
September 29, 2007
The ThaiMyths.com site, set up by USA for Innovation, has just disappeared from the net. Previously, USA for Innovation, a short-lived website set up to pressure the Thai regime, stopped posting two days after deposed PM Thaksin ended his association with lobbying group Edelman.